Like many, Tracie Hamilton couldn't tear herself away from her television set when coverage started of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. The death toll has been estimated between 110,000 and 300,000, and more than a quarter million homes were destroyed or badly damaged.

Hamilton, sobbing, prayed to be shown the right way to help in Haiti.

"I've seen other natural disasters play out on television. This was different," she said. "I was desperate to get there."

Her husband, Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton, came back from a TV commentator gig at a figure skating competition. Turns out he also was moved by the death and destruction in Haiti.

Months later, a friend at church told Tracie about a Nashville couple, Dr. David and Laurie Vanderpool, who were about to move to Haiti permanently to help in the impoverished nation. The next time the Vanderpools gathered Tennessee friends to talk about what they were doing, Tracie was there, riveted.

She cried through most of the Vanderpools' presentation, knowing her prayer had been answered.

A month or so later, Tracie and Aidan went to visit the Vanderpools' Nashville headquarters for their aid organization, Live Beyond, where a Christmas tree sat in the lobby.

On each ornament was a Haitian child's picture along with a list of what that child might like to have for Christmas. Aidan went straight to the ornament with the picture of a smiling boy named Jean Paul. Laurie Vanderpool told Aidan that Jean Paul was a good athlete and a smart kid.

Aidan, then 8, was sold: "That's who we're going to get Christmas for."

Tracie was on a plane to Haiti a couple of months later, her first of 19 trips there. She got to meet Jean Paul and his older teen-aged brother, Rivaldo, and younger sister, Evelyne. The girl was the shy one at the Children of Hope orphanage, in sprawling Thomazeau, about 90 minutes north of capitol city Port-au-Prince.

Tracie brought along an iPhone video from Aidan for Jean Paul: "I hope you have fun with my mom in Haiti."

A few months later, Scott joined Tracie for his first trip to Haiti, and he was stunned by the contrasts.

The playful exchange turned into a serious discussion and a lot of prayer. The stumbling block: The Hamiltons didn't feel as equipped at that point in their lives to parent a teen. And they worried that adopting three children would be overwhelming.

A few months later, though, Scott and Tracie found out that a Knoxville couple would be adopting the oldest sibling, Rivaldo.

"The decision was being made for us," Scott said. "The one obstruction had been moved."

A month later, on a summer day, Tracie turned to her husband and said, "I think it's time…" and Scott finished, "…to bring those kids home."

The Hamiltons felt buried by the avalanche of paperwork that followed.

Long questionnaires, background checks, fees, medical histories, fingerprints, credit checks, more fees, interviews, home inspections, family histories, more forms and more fees.

The Hamiltons' cheery assistant, Michelle Thornbury, helped get them through. But even Thornbury's sunny disposition didn't stop the Hamiltons from feeling really frustrated along the way.

"I get it, I want to be vetted, vet me and vet me again. I totally get it, when you think about what's going on with kids and think about how they're being trafficked," Scott said.

"And then it becomes enough. There becomes a tipping point. Don't let me get to that point. Just don't pummel me with all these regulations, putting me through it five times."

Some 22 months, $25,000 and 12 Haiti trips later, the whole Hamilton family went down to pick up Jean Paul and Evelyne. They spent several days in a nice Port-au-Prince hotel, swimming together, eating together, playing together and generally getting acclimated to each other before heading to Nashville.

Lessons started coming quickly — Jean Paul and Evelyne were used to being surrounded by kids, so homeschooling didn't work. They would get wound up at night because the oppressive heat would break at sundown in Haiti, and that's when kids would go out and play.

Oh yeah, and they are fascinated with snow.

"Mom, it looks like salt!" Jean Paul declared after some flurries stuck to the roof.

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Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic gold medal winner in men’s figure skating, takes a spin on the ice at the Ice Centennial skating rink in Nashville Jan. 8, 1985. Hamilton is touring with the Ice Capades that is in town.(Photo: Callie Shell / The Tennessean)

Yes, Jean Paul and Evelyne now know that their father won Olympic gold in 1984. Their main reaction to that: "They think I look silly with hair," Scott says.

Yes, Scott has taken them ice skating. Jean Paul wants nothing to do with it. Evelyne seems to love it.

Earlier this week, citizenship certificates arrived at Hamiltons' estate in a gated community in Franklin.

Now, Jean Paul, 13, and Evelyne, 11, are just as American — and just as Hamilton — as their U.S.-born brothers.

"God orchestrated everything in such an amazing way," the gold medalist said. "Looking back you have to smile that all we had to do is follow along and be obedient."

Tracie added, "We would not have said no if we wanted to. It was out of our control. This is how I know it's God."